Baby Girls

First things first. I have to apologize to Elaine and Leroy, and anyone else who may have gotten an unsolicited e-mail from me. I had e-mailed myself a link from work, and somehow that link did evil in my address book. I claim stupiditiy here. I really don't know how those things work.

One of the young men I work with has two brothers and both his brothers became fathers to little girls born within 24 hours of each other this week. Last I heard one was needing a great deal of extra medical help.

 I decided to make the cousins each a little quilt. I started them at Thimbles yesterday and now I need to quilt them.

I used similar dark purple plaids and the same denim blue fabric, but each little girl gets her own floral.

 I got up early today to do a little cooking (above is a scrambled egg with onion on a bed of lettuce with avocado on the side and salsa on top) before church. I have become a somewhat regular church-goer thanks to my oldest son's influence. I (sometimes accompanied by my husband) have been attending Fusion church in Flowery Branch, GA. Pastor Tony is amazing. He married Eron and Meredith, so that's where I met him. E & M are youth pastors, so they are very involved at Fusion.

Afterward I headed over to the Lakewood Antiques Market where I spied some treasure. Above is a pre-printed emboidery panel; I'd been wanting some handwork, and this one will allow me to practice French knots, so it's perfect for me. Then I discovered the vintage piece below.

 I love the painted roses, the stitched embellishment and the chocolate brown x-es. Charmed me right from the start. Thanks Ginny of Ginny's Vintage and More.

And from Annie's Ribbon Emporium this soft ribbon; perfect for tying up those little girls' quilts.

Value at Work in my Quilts

I got the red border on. I like it better.

But the pinwheels don't show up well.

They didn't show up much better on the original on I made.

I love the fabrics in both quilts, but should have stuck with the two-color scheme. The pattern got broken up when the values of the blues I used varied too much.

I have read about color value in quilt books, but I have not thought consciously about it when putting together fabrics for my quilts. The Irish Chain quilt (below) that I was working on for a challenge (what year was that?), and still have not finished, shows good contrast and use of value.

You can read more about color value in quilting

by clicking HERE.

Since I use stash fabrics in my quilts, I often don't have enough of the fabric to make all the blocks the same. In the Irish chain, most of the big yellow areas are whole pieces with the corner squares appliqued on, but one is pieced. Can you see the difference in the two pictures?

Value is what's wrong with the quilt below.

In Pepper Cory's class sample (sorry you'll have to scroll down through the linked blog post, but the photo is worth it) the background fabrics create diagonal lines through the quilt. My background fabrics were too close in value and the drama of the diagonal lines is lost.

That's why I have not finished it?

I have to say though that Sashiko is really fun, and I cannot think of a better way to get young people working with needle and thread. (See Sophie Rubin on Quilting Arts by clicking this link.)

 I wish the preprinted panels were easy to find.

Let me know if you have a good website for Sashiko supplies, and I'll promote it here on the blog.

Last, for this post, is a little bitty quilt top I made from some scraps I found in Mom's (Linda Brannock's) discards. No lesson about value here; I was just making something useful from scraps, but you can see value at work in it too.

Breakfast Conversation

Conversation had at the breakfast table of a man in his early 60s and his wife in her mid 50s:
He: I want you to be careful when you travel to south Atlanta.
She: Okay.
He: I don't want to have to identify your body in a morgue.
She: Because you wouldn't be able to.
He: Yes I could.
She: No you couldn't.
He: Yes I can.
She: No you can't.
He: Can to.
She:  Can not.
He: Can.
She: How?
He: You have a birthmark between your toes.
She: Do not.
He: Do to.
She (baring toes): Show me.
He (examining toes): I know it's here somewhere.
She: Confused for the ex-wife again.
He: Not true.
She: SIGH

Start something new

I swore I was not going to start anything new.

Then I got an idea for something which has morphed into an idea for something else. Oh, what the heck, I started cutting Brannock and Patek (Moda) fabric.

Eighty-four 8" squares in a light print and 84 in dark print. I plan to make another top like the green one here (previous post ). My youngest son liked it, so one of the other boys will get one in this Brannock and Patek blue and butternut combination.

Mark a line from corner to corner on back of the light print.

Go ahead and mark all 84 light squares. Layer the dark and light together with the light on top so you can see to stitch both sides of the line.

I used my quarter inch foot lined up on the cutting line.

You will cut on this line after you stitch 1/4th inch away on both sides. Keep stitching; you don't have to stop after each set. This is chain piecing.

Cut them apart if you wish and start down the other side of the line.

You can cut on the line after stitching 1/4 inch away from both sides. Rotary cut or scissors; you choose.

Now you have two half-square triangles. You will need four of these to make a pinwheel (1 unit goes to pinwheel, 1 unit will be turned into a quarter-square triangle).  Press the seams open.

Before you sew together the pinwheel, you will need to square the 4 units to 6 1/2 inches. (Do not square the units that are going to be quarter-square triangles.)

For the unit that is going to be a quarter-square triangle, mark the center with a dot. 

Layer another half-square unit on top with the diagonal line already marked and find its center too. Stab a pin through it, matching it to the dot on the unit underneath.

Make sure your seams line up and put a couple of pins in.

 Looks good.  

Again, sew 1/4 inch away from both sides of the drawn line.

Check things lined up, then cut these apart like you did the half-square units above.

I had to piece together some of my fabric to get enough to make all the 8 inch squares. No big deal. In the end you won't notice.

 Here are the two blocks: the pinwheel (top) and the hour glass (or small pinwheel-below). All seams are pressed open as you go along.

I'm sticking it on the design wall and going to bed now.Wait! I forgot to put a kitty photo in.

Joe and I both love my "new" coffee table.

Okay, we can sleep now.

Where are the family pictures?

I finished this little quilt today. I chose orange bias stripe binding.

I have enjoyed spending time with family this holiday season, and I have not recorded a single photograph of the fun I've had with them. Sheesh.

 Naturally I have cat photos. I was not sure Joe would stay away from the tree. Fortunately he was chill about it.

This is cake the neighbor, Wanda, made and brought to us. I didn't cook; my oven is broken.

Since I eventually want to something with the pile of denim jeans taking up space in the closet, I set about de-constructing them. Here is a pile of denim "bones."

 And the resulting pile of usable denim parts. This work took all day, so I'll just let it sit for a while. I'm not sure what I want to do yet.

Joe has a favorite perch in my sewing room. He likes to be up high, snoozing away.

I've no doubt sewing machine noise puts cats straight to sleep.

 The quilt below is one I "finished" a couple of years ago and put in a charity auction. You know, one of those silent auctions where people write in bids. No one bid on it (small sigh), so I had to. I bought it for $60. (big sigh)

I felt like it needed something, and so today I decided to add more quilting.

Oh yes, much better. I used varigated thread on the front and clear bobbin thread, but the back looks better too.

You absolutely can add quilting to a quilt that's already been bound. This is the second time I've done it, and both quilts were better off for it. 

Sweet! Like Joe's little toes.

Christmas Eve

This past week I've had vacation from work, so I got to stitch a little.

(for Andy and Chelsea)

Since I learned how to make pillowcases, all the boys are getting a set of cases (among other things) for Christmas.

(for Adam and Mary Elizabeth)

I top-stitched the accent strip down this time as I read on a blog that it will stay down after washing that way and not require ironing. I also used French seams on the inside to enclose the raw edges. I only had to unstitch and re-do twice (progress).

(for Eron and Meredith)

I showed this (blue and yellow) pair of cases to my neighbor, and offered to make her a pair. She needs king size so I had to adapt. Instead of 27" for the main portion, you upsize to 36" (see the Twiddletails pdf)

(for Wanda and James)

I mentioned I'd done a little shopping on E-bay. I never in a million years would have thought to order cowboy boots from online. Not in a million years. But I fell in love with a picture of one boot size 9 1/2,  so I made the purchase, and then spent 4 days worried I'd wasted the money my husband gave me for my Christmas present. The picture only had one boot in it. What if I hadn't read the information correctly and there really was only one boot? Or the second boot was too deformed to be in the picture?

It looked like they'd never been out of the box. And when I slipped them on, they felt like they were made for me. I got lucky. I love them.

Three hundred dollars less than retail price. I did good this time. I never need another pair of boots ever in this lifetime.